


Currahee to Semper Fi

by Casey_Wolfe



Category: Band of Brothers, Generation Kill
Genre: Family, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-24 01:51:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8351641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casey_Wolfe/pseuds/Casey_Wolfe
Summary: Who would have thought a reunion would come about because their grandsons decided to date?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Suspension of disbelief is a must here. Also, when the U.S. was invading Iraq, both Nix and Lipton had passed away, but we’re breaking the laws of time already, so… Oh and the title sucks, I know. If you have an issue with it, take it up with Ray-Ray and his MRE Cookies.

It wasn’t until part way through the invasion that they realized the connection they had.  It was during one of the few times Nate was sitting with them just to shoot the breeze.

Someone made some off-handed remark about whether or not people would call them heroes back home.  Nate smiled and replied, “It’s like my Grandpa Dick told me a long time ago when I asked him if he was a hero in the war.”  Nate’s smile was fond.  “He said ‘No.  But I served with a company of them.’”

Brad’s eyes widened.  “I’ve heard that before.”

“Yeah, right homes?” Ray agreed.

Nate shrugged, but it clicked in Brad’s brain then.  “Wait.  Not Dick Winters?”

It was Nate’s turn to look surprised.  “Yeah, 101st Airborne.”

“Holy shit dude!” Ray cried, smacking Brad’s arm.  “What are the fucking odds?!”  To Nate, he explained, “My Great-Uncle Luz served with Winters.”

“George Luz?”

“The one and only.”  Ray grinned and slapped Brad’s chest with the back of his hand.  “This here is Ron Speirs’ grandson.”

Nate’s jaw dropped open and Brad felt like crawling under a rock.

“Who the hell are these people?” Trombley inquired.

“Fucking really?” Doc Bryan replied.  “Don’t you know your history?  101st Airborne were some badass motherfuckers.  Those men were hard as nails.”  He looked over at Brad and commented, “I had no idea you were related to Speirs of all people.  He was… shit, man.”

Brad wasn’t really paying much attention.  He was looking at Nate, who was watching him in turn like some puzzle piece he couldn’t quite place.

* * *

Nate was thirteen when he learned about his grandparents’ involvement in the war.  Grandpa Dick and Grandpa Nix had been a large part of his life.  He was old enough to know that they weren’t actually married - and why - and that Dick had adopted Nate’s mother as a baby - because no one would have ever let Dick and Nix adopt a kid _together_.

Nate never liked that.  He rather learned to hate it in fact.  If any of it bothered his grandparents though, well, they never showed it.  Perhaps it was because they had grown accustomed to hiding their relationship.  Plenty of people suspected, Nate was sure, but few were granted the truth of it from their mouths.

That weekend as he was helping Nix clean out the garage, they stumbled across a box containing medals, a few journals, and some other souvenirs.  Nix laughed a little, eyes softening as he pulled a pin out that appeared to be wings.

“Hey Dick!” Nix called, continuing to riffle through the box while waiting on Dick.  When he stood in the door, Nix held the wings up with a little smile.  Dick immediately softened as well.

“What is all this Nix?” Nate asked, knowing better than to call the man _grandpa_ since he claimed it made him feel old.

“Why don’t you bring it inside Lew?” Dick suggested.

They settled in the living room, pulling items out, and Nate listened in rapt awe as they told stories of their adventures across Europe.

Nate, as he was wont to do when something interested him, looked up about every piece of history he could find regarding the 101st Airborne.  And he slowly was able to coax more stories from Dick and Nix.  He understood why some things they didn’t want to remember, or were scared to tell him until he got older.

They had even taken him along to a reunion one year where he got to meet the likes of Bill Guarnere, Babe Heffron, and Joe Toye.  That was the last reunion Toye had made it to in fact.

When Nate called his grandparents to inform them he’d enlisted in the marines, there was a pregnant pause on the other end.  “Grandpa?”

“Hold on,” Dick replied.  “Let me get Nix.”  Dick called for his partner to pick up the other phone so they could all talk.

“Hey there kiddo,” Nix greeted.  “What’s going on?”

It was Dick that answered for him.  “Nate joined the marines.”

“The marines?  Now why would you go do a thing like that?”

Nate had planned on them being upset.  He had seen the shadows in their eyes, had heard their accounts first hand.  “Someone needs to lead them and make sure they come out on the other end,” he replied.  “May as well be me.”

There was a long sigh that Nate couldn’t say who it was from.  Then Dick answered, as Nate knew he would, with “Be careful.”  Dick paused before assuring, “We’re both really proud of you, no matter what it is you do.”

* * *

Brad remembered summers spent in Boston for as long as he could remember.  He loved his Grandad Speirs.  Ron was a stoic man, not one for easy smiles or laughter, but he clearly loved Brad.  His dad had grown up with Ron still involved in his life, despite the fact that Ron and his then wife had separated shortly after the war was over.  So Brad had grown up with two families essentially - his grandma’s side in England and Ron’s side in the U.S.

Ron’s side included a lot of old war buddies.  Brad had grown up roughhousing and _playing_ at war, much like any young boy, but he didn’t understand until he was older.

There were quite a few things he didn’t understand until his teenage years.  Like the fact that his dad, nor Ron, ever talked about Carwood Lipton always being there when they visited.  Every summer it never failed, Carwood was there.  To a young Brad, it never struck him odd, but once he got older he understood the unspoken fact.  Ron and Carwood were together.

Well, shortly after that, Brad had started to call him Papa Lip.  It made Carwood smile - and Ron too, though he quickly schooled his features - and really, Brad thought the man deserved it.  Carwood had raised him just as much as Ron had, and he spoiled Brad rotten growing up to be fair.  So Papa Lip it was and Brad continued the game of playing dumb like the rest of his family did.

Of course Carwood wasn’t the only person to be around in the summer.  Typically Luz, another army pal of theirs, showed up for at least a couple weeks.  Eventually he started to drag along his nephew, who was the same age as Brad, in some weird attempt to get them both socialized.  Brad could have cared less for Ray, but Ray became something of a limpet all the same.  Damn Papa Lip for still having to be best friends with George Luz.

The day he signed up for the marine corps, he stopped in to see Ron and Carwood.  Carwood just about cried but Ron couldn’t have looked more proud.  It wasn’t that Carwood somehow wasn’t, Brad knew, but he was worried about the things he would end up doing, things Carwood had done and never wanted to think of again.

Ron had been a career soldier, taking his time off to spend as much of it with Carwood as he could.  Ron had confessed once that he felt guilty for dragging Carwood around the world - as much as Carwood claimed to enjoy it - and leaving him alone for long periods of time.  The day Ron decided to retire, he had done it for his partner.  It had been long overdue that they settled down into a simpler, happy life.

Before Brad left, Ron pressed something in his hand.  Ron wasn’t the type for flowery words and instead let his gestures do the talking.  Brad opened his hand after getting in the car to find a pair of airborne wings.  Brad smiled.

* * *

When Nate stumbled upon him, Brad was playing with a pair of wings, ones Nate would recognize anywhere.  “Ronald Speirs, huh?”

Brad didn’t even jump, probably having heard him coming.  He twirled the wings once more before replying, “That’s him.  My dad’s something of the bastard child.  Kind of.”  Brad shrugged.

“You’ve met him then?  Speirs?”

“Stayed with him every summer just about.”

Nate hummed thoughtfully, sitting down beside Brad in the shade of the humvee.  “Dick said he was one of the bravest men he knew.  Guess they kept in touch but Speirs never really went to the reunions.”

Brad didn’t say anything.

Pressing on, Nate commented, “Grandpa Nix used to say he was an asshole.”  He glanced over, seeing a smirk forming on Brad’s face.  “But he still liked him all the same.”

Brad wet his lips, brows drawing together as he thought about something.  “Nix?”

“Lewis Nixon.  He was-”

“Yeah, Papa Lip used to talk about him.”

Nate smiled softly then.  So Nix’s suspicions that Carwood Lipton and Ron Speirs being an item were right all along.  Well, chalk one up for the Intelligence Officer.  Dick was never going to live it down.

“So Winters and Nixon…”

“Yup.”

“Huh.”  Brad left it at that.

* * *

“I was right!  I knew it!” Nix yelled, rushing into the living room.

“What are you going on about Nix?” Dick asked, brow raised as he attempted to read the morning paper.

“We just got a letter from Nate.  And he says he just received confirmation that one Carwood Lipton and Ron Speirs were not only together during the war, but…”  Nix paused for dramatic effect.  “They still are.”

Dick scoffed.  “No they aren’t.”

“It’s all right here.”  Nix waved the letter before letting it float down towards Dick who snatched it from the air.

“A reliable source, huh?” Dick asked suspiciously, reading over his grandson’s words.

“As I recall,” Nix was already saying, “our bet was… fifty dollars.”

“Lew.”  Dick raised a brow.

“Alright, do I at least get a kiss?”

Dick’s expression softened, motioning his partner over and pulling him down into a soft kiss.

“And a ‘You were right Nix?’” he tried, laughing as he was shoved away.  “Don’t feel too bad Dick,” he called as he went for a coffee refill, “Least you know they’re happy.”

* * *

“Why that-  Unbelievable.”

Carwood raised a brow, looking at Ron over top of his paper.  “What?”

“Brad says he found Winters’ grandson.  Apparently Dick neglected to tell me that he and Nixon are together.”

Carwood hide his smirk behind the paper.  “It’s not like you told him about us.”

Ron just grumbled and went back to reading the letter.  “When I get ahold of those two, I swear…”

Carwood only reached out blindly to pat Ron’s hand, biting his lip to avoid laughing.

* * *

When they got back stateside, they headed to Boston first.  Meeting Speirs had been nerve-wracking, but Carwood’s warm embrace well made up for the stone-cold-killer look Ron had clearly perfected.

“I guess I know where you get the Iceman routine from,” Nate commented to Brad, receiving a sharp grin in return.  When Ron mirrored it, Nate shook his head.  “I’m not sure I want to date you anymore.”

“Dating?” Carwood looked between them.

“You forgot to mention that,” Ron added dryly, crossing his arms as he looked at Brad expectantly.

“I wanted to tell you in person,” Brad answered.  “Besides, the way they go through our mail, we’d have been pretty screwed.”

“I managed it,” Nate replied with a smirk.

“Not all of our grandparents are weird intelligence guys who taught their grandkid code when they were growing up.”

Nate just continued to grin.

“Speaking of which,” Brad said to his grandparents, “We wanted to know if you’d like to come with us when we go see his side of the family.”

Carwood grinned.  “We’d love to.”

* * *

It was quite the surprise when Dick opened the door to find Nate there with a stranger, and two other men who were anything but.  “Grandpa!”  Nate surged forward, hugging him tight and Dick smiled.  “I brought a few guests if that’s alright.  Nix home?”

“Inside.”

“Nix!” Nate yelled, slipping by and rushing off inside.  “Nix!”

“Some things don’t change,” Dick noted.  He grinned at Ron and Carwood.  “Where in the world have you two been hiding?”

“We could ask the same,” Ron replied.  Carwood moved forward to pull Dick into a warm embrace.  Some things really didn’t change at all.

* * *

“I want you to know I blame you for this entirely,” Nix mentioned, leveling Ron with a look.

Ron raised a challenging brow, the pair just staring at each other for a long time.  Nate and Brad watched the whole thing, squeezing each other’s hands as they tried not to laugh.  Carwood rolled his eyes and Dick looked about ready to do the same.

Finally Nix broke, reaching a hand out.  “How the hell have you been?”

Ron actually smiled in return, grasping his hand.  “Good to see ya Nix.”

* * *

Later during dinner, Dick looked across the table at Brad.  “You take care of Nate.”  There was no “or else” but it was sure heard loud and clear.

“I will sir,” Brad assured.  He looked over at Nate and smiled softly.  “I love him.  He means the world to me.”

Nate would deny the heart-eyed puppy expression, so Brad didn’t bother pointing it out.  His Papa Lip was just as bad though.

“Well I for one like your boy here Dick.”  Carwood clapped a hand on Nate’s shoulder.

“Takes more after him than me,” Nix threw in, “that’s for sure.”

“Natural leader from what I heard,” Ron said.  He looked at Nate a moment before attempting to sound dismissive, “Brad couldn’t do much better, I don’t think.”

They all laughed and even Ron cracked a little smile.

And if Brad learned one thing from Grandad Ron, it was not to let the man he loved watch him go away again and again.  So Brad did some time with the Royal Marine Commandos while Nate finished up his degree at Dartmouth before shocking Nate with a very special surprise on his graduation day - Brad’s discharge papers and a ring.

Their wedding ended up being part celebration and part Easy Company Reunion, but that was fine by them.

“Semper Fi, Nate,” Brad murmured, kissing him long and slow, savoring every moment.

Nate was grinning when he pulled away.  “I love you too Brad.”

/End

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [Tumblr](http://thedenofcaseywolfe.tumblr.com/).


End file.
